LEONHIRTH: Lifetime switches its focus to death

My first confession among many is that I sometimes need background noise when I am working at home. It needs to be noise, however, that is not distracting from the work.

I tried classical music for awhile, but once WPLN in Nashville switched from classical to all news and commentary, I never made it back to classical music.

Another confession is that I just turn on the television for background noise since the set is in another room.

I discovered over the years that the best network for the background noise usually was Lifetime.

I find news networks too distracting, and Lifetime generally had fare that included romantic comedies and dramas, that with a few exceptions, were rather bland treatments of social issues.

Recently, however, Lifetime has made some programming changes that are not bland and can be rather distracting.

"Real crime" has become the focus of some days and several nights of programming.

Serial killers, sibling killers and murderous sexual predators are among the subjects of these shows, and the intent apparently is to present their crimes in as much gruesome detail as possible.

In all fairness, Lifetime movies have dealt with these topics but with a fictional approach that generally softened them to a point.

While murder and mayhem tends not to be too humorous, the number of movies about "killer" nannies on the network was rather amazing and actually rather amusing. Throw in the number of "killer" executive assistants, and that was even more amusing.

Most of these insights were gained not from just listening to these shows, but watching portions of them at times.

Perhaps it is indicative of the quality of most of this fare that a few scenes here or there usually are sufficient to know the plot, its treatment and character development without having to sit through the entire movie.

The attraction of the "real crime" fare is not so clear.

While one purpose is to entertain, as with the movies, listening to morbid details of ritual killings is something that I find less than entertaining.

These shows have a target audience, or they would not be on television. A quick trip to the bookstore or to a book site on the Internet will provide any number of magazines and books that deal with "real crime" topics.

Without much of a doubt, I am not in the viewing mainstream since I have vowed never to watch a "reality" show. The few snippets I have encountered along the way have convinced me that I made the right decision in that regard.

As a fan of "Law and Order" and "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" I also began watching "Law and Order: SVU."

Several years ago, I realized that I was watching too many crime-procedural dramas and something had to go. "Law and Order: SVU" got the boot.

The series now is in its 15th season and apparently going strong, so other viewers apparently have not made similar decisions.

Lifetime may be switching its schedule to all "true crime," which means that I will need to find another network for background noise.

Well, I suppose, there's always Hallmark.

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LEONHIRTH: Lifetime switches its focus to death

My first confession among many is that I sometimes need background noise when I am working at home. It needs to be noise, however, that is not distracting from the work.